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Parshat Vayeytze
1998
A Strange First Date
Introduction
Yaakov is on the run. With purloined blessing and birthright in hand, he flees from his father's house and is seeking refuge with his uncle, Lavan. Yaakov pauses by a well where shepherds are gathered and the following scene is set:
Genesis 29:1-10
1. Yaakov lifted his feet and went to the land of the Easterners.
2. He looked around him, and there was: a well in the field, and there were three herds of sheep crouching near it, for from that well they used to give the herds to drink. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large,
3. So, when all the herds were gathered there, they used to roll the stone from the mouth of the well, give the sheep to drink, and put the stone back on the mouth of the well in its place.
4. Now Yaakov said to them: Brothers, where are you from? They said:
We are from Harran.
5. He said to them: Do you know Lavan, son of Nahor?
They said: We know him.
6. He said to them: Is all well with him? They said: It is well? and here comes Rahel his daughter with the sheep!
7. He said: Indeed, it is still broad daylight, it is not time to gather in the livestock, so give the sheep to drink and go back, tend them.
8. But they said: We cannot, until all the herds have been gathered; only then do they roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and then we give the sheep to drink.
9. While he was still speaking with them, Rahel came with the sheep that were her father's for she was a shepherdess.
10. Now it was when Yaakov saw Rahel, the daughter of Lavan and the sheep of Lavan his mother's brother, that Yaakov came close, he rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and gave drink to the sheep of Lavan his mother's brother.
11. Then Yaakov kissed Rahel, and lifted up his voice and wept.
12. And Yaakov told Rahel that he was her father's brother and that he was Rivka's son.
Your Torah Navigator
1. From the time Yaakov sees Rahel, chart Yaakov's behavior toward her. What does he do first, what does he do next?
2. When does Yaakov kiss Rahel, before or after he introduces himself?
3. Why is that?
A Word
The wantonly secular novelist and anti-orthodox columnist, Meir Shalev, wrote a lovely book called Tanach Achshav (The Bible Now). He noted the peculiarity in that Yaakov kisses Rahel before he introduces himself. In fact, he notes the absurdity of the whole sequence of events. First he waters the sheep, then he kisses her, then he cries and then he introduces himself. Today, he might have been arrested prior to the introduction.
Meir Shalev claims Yaakov did this intentionally. For if he had introduced himself first then the kiss would have been the kiss of a cousin, and not of a man who was governed by the pure passion of romance. Yaakov shows his heart with his tears. He shows his passion for Rahel with his kiss and only then does he admit that he is also family. This scene foreshadows the lengths that Yaakov will go to be with Rahel.
As the Torah says: So Yaakov served seven years for Rahel, yet they were in his eyes as but a few days, because of his love for her.
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